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CHALLENGING OPPORTUNITIES, from page 7
TZL: Diversity and inclusion is lacking. What steps are you taking to address the issue? DA: As most of our work comes from architectural clients, we have a goal to have our workforce mirror our client firms. Utah is not a very diverse state and there are fewer wom- en graduating in the engineering profession than men and even fewer minorities. This is a challenge. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around? DA: We conduct an annual employee engagement survey every year and one of the questions is “how long do you plan to stay at Reaveley?” Eighty-three percent indicated they plan to stay 10 years or longer and 67 percent indi- cated they plan to stay until retirement. I attribute this to the broad distribution of ownership, exciting and rewarding projects, and our people caring about one another. TZL: Benefits are evolving. Are you offering any new ones due to the changing demographic? DA: We have started a new initiative called “Reaveley Cares” with millennials and baby boomers on the committee to tackle this issue. I expect the outcome will be maximum overtime guidelines to improve work-life balance, more paid holidays, and possibly a policy to create a shared pool of PTO for family leave from time donated from other em- ployees. TZL: What scares you about the geopolitical environ- ment today? DA: Tariffs driving up costs, lack of qualified hires, and eco- nomic downturn. TZL: How are the tariffs impacting your business and that of your clients? DA: Cost of building materials are going up. “We strive to provide challenging opportunities to our employees and the cream rises to the top. As individuals gain experience, they’re provided with more challenging and important opportunities.” TZL: How are the tax cuts impacting your business? Have salaries and bonuses increased? DA: Lower taxes have allowed us to retain more earnings and build up our rainy day fund. TZL: How have the tax cuts impacted your firm’s valua- tion? Do you plan on doing another valuation due to the tax cuts? DA: Our valuation has not changed because it’s based on book value. TZL: Are you currently pursuing the R&D tax credit? DA: Yes, starting in 2015 for the first time. The CPA costs are high, but we will continue to take advantage of it.
assumption that all firms are the same. Anyone can own software, but not everyone can use it effectively and even know if the results are accurate. Firms must communicate the value they provide to their clients outside of the tech- nology. Insist on lump sum contracts and advocate for qual- ification based selection to public and private clients. TZL: If the worker shortage continues, do you see wag- es increasing to encourage more talent to enter the AEC space, or will technology be used to counter the reduced workforce? DA: I see wages increasing to compete for scarce resources, but not necessarily to attract people into AEC careers. That might be a positive side effect of increasing salaries. We have considered offering scholarships to attract high school graduates to enter engineering. Technology will help, but we still need people to do the work. “The essence of who we are has evolved – real cultural change has occurred. Cultural change is hard, but when it happens, it’s extremely rewarding.” TZL: There is no substitute for experience, but there is pressure to give responsibility to younger staff. What are you doing to address the risk while pursuing the oppor- tunity to develop your team? DA: We have a coaching and mentoring program that has a two-part focus: build skills at a faster pace and get assigned to projects that build experience. Coaches review a skills gap analysis with young engineers on a regular basis, and help them set goals to develop skills to meet minimum compe- tency. Coaches also advocate to principals to get engineers assigned to work that helps them build the skills they need. We also have a principal level person with the role of QA/QC as his only responsibility. TZL: Engineers love being engineers, but what are you doing to instill a business culture in your firm? DA: The financial information for our firm and every proj- ect is communicated to all employees. Project budgets are set up in terms of dollars and everyone is expected to create a project management plan with a schedule to meet a target margin. We also send people to business training seminars on a regular basis. Our in-house training program also in- cludes sessions geared to the business. All employees are in- vited and welcome to attend our annual shareholders meet- ing. We encourage employees to build personal relation- ships with clients at every level. TZL: The seller-doer model is very successful, but with growth you need to adapt to new models. What is your program? DA: It’s true that the seller-doer model has been very suc- cessful for us, but it’s supplemented with full-time market- ing people. We have not deviated from the seller-doer strat- egy yet, but we have a team-based strategy to service clients which gives marketing responsibilities to individuals on the principal track.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER July 8, 2019, ISSUE 1303
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